It’s Friday and time for some random thoughts to wrap up the week. Enter at your own risk:

• If you haven’t seen it, there’s a meme floating around about a wife who asks her husband how often he thinks about the Roman Empire. She’s shocked to find out it’s a daily/weekly thought for him. Take a moment and watch this – it’s hilarious because it’s so true. I’m a once every couple of weeks kinda Roman Empire guy.
• I’m heading to a tropical island in a few weeks and needed a new swimsuit. Since the boardshorts don’t have a liner, I had to order some sort of swim underwear to keep the parts… well, contained. I don’t know what my Amazon search term was, but I discovered dudes are ordering underwear with padded crotches to, ahem, enhance the bulge. I now fear for the ad suggestions that will pop up for the next month. And no, I didn’t order them.
• I learned a new term today. Anthroinsulae: human islands — cultures within cultures. The island of Lampedusa, Italy was overrun by 8,000 migrants in 48 hours. We had 9,100 migrants just the other day on our southern border. We’re on track for 200,000+ a month this year. DHS is now referring to them as “freedom runs” when instructing the border patrol on mass releases. If you’re of my age, the country you grew up in is gone. These migrants are not looking to assimilate or integrate into the American culture. See earlier reference to the Roman Empire and decline thereof.
• We’re about 90 days now from the typical start of the ski season. Unfortunately we’re entering an El Niño phase, which in my part of the world usually means drier and warmer. Is it going to be a bust of ski season? I hope not, I don’t have that many left.
• Dove soap is having its own Bud Light moment. After watching Disney and Bud Light implode, how does a corporation still green light ad campaigns like this? How did woke become more important than oh, I don’t know, returning profit to shareholders?
• We’re having some landscaping work done. I’m in awe at how hard these guys work. This week they’ve been going to a different job at 4am, working until 8am and then coming to our place and working until 6 or 7pm. Meanwhile, I change a lightbulb, go to the grocery store, mow the lawn and then need a nap because I’m exhausted. I clearly won’t survive the zombie apocalypse.
• Speaking of zombies, I watched the first episode of the new Walking Dead/Daryl Dixon spin off series. Meh. I’ll give it a few more episodes. I don’t know who thought having half the characters speak in a heavy French accent that’s hard to understand would be a good idea.
• Because of the landscape work being done, I spent the last few days researching low voltage lighting systems. Good grief, it’s way more complicated than I imagined. Voltage calculations, length of wire runs, transformer options, LED vs halogen… At this point I may just duct tape some flashlights to the trees and call it good.
• People are getting fed up with the ridiculous climate activists blocking roads. Unfortunately in this country you just have to sit in your car and take it. I guarantee if you try to move any of them out of the way, you’ll be seeing prison time.
• Update to the Crocs situation: I am now a convert. Contemplating ordering more colors.
• Speaking of converts, Mrs Troutdog is a long time Apple person. Apple just announced their new phone and watch, which Mrs Troutdog instantly jumped on. As a brand new iMac user, I expect her to go full court press to get me to dump my Android phone and fully commit to the ecosystem. She already hinted that the watch could be used as a dive watch for the upcoming island trip. I did look, it turns out you have pay for a subscription service to use it as an actual dive computer. I might have to unretire to afford all the new tech.

That’s it for the week. Go out and do something fun. I plan on ruining a good walk by chasing the little white ball around. Probably throw a trip into the backcountry into the mix as well. Might even wear my new camouflage Crocs.